Bronze Star of Life article in FireWire

CSI news release (2)

Midwest Pool Management provides contract aquatic operations for numerous municipal park and recreation departments, subdivisions and other commercial pools in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan area.

Like most well run organizations, Midwest Pool Management (MPM) conducts employee surveys to obtain feedback from the line employees on a wide variety of issues and subjects. This feedback is used to enhance the delivery of pool management services to their clients.

At the conclusion of last year’s surveys, the Kansas City division of Midwest Pool Management under the leadership of Eden Dowler – Vice President, created a focus group of 25 seasonal employees from a variety of Kansas City area facilities to address topics that were identified in those surveys.  These topics included:

• professional appearance of the management team
• an evaluation of the interview, orientation and lifeguard training program
• including all employees in the current MPM Lifeguard Olympics program
• creating an employee mentoring program
• how best to bring employees together to give back to those communities being served by MPM

This effort gave birth to MPM’s CSI: KC (Cultural and Social Improvement: Kansas City) group -insert appropriate Who song here!  Chad Beasley and Kelly Davidson, both MPM full-time pool managers, are the CSI co-chairs and lead monthly CSI: KC meetings.  CSI: KC developed the following mission statement:

In an effort to give back to those communities served by MPM, CSI: KC developed service days at local parks. The first of which took place on June 25 at 3 centrally located parks in three of the municipalities that are current MPM clients.  Although the weather was stormy and pouring rain, the enthusiasm of the MPM staffers could not be dampened.

35 MPM employees descended upon the City of Kansas City’s Barry Road Park where the employees were supposed to fill cracks in the tennis courts but stormy weather prevented that task but not to be denied, the employees picked up trash in the park in the rain.

That same day another 42 MPM employees volunteered for the City of Blue Springs at Ward Park. There they cleaned up a mile long trail, moved boulders and picked up trash.

The final project on the first service day involved 46 MPM employees working with the City of Independence at the Truman Memorial Building trimming bushes, pulling weeds and picking up trash.

The second service day was held July 16 with 74 employees turning out at Swope Park in Kansas City where they performed trash and debris pick-up along a 1.5 mile section of Lewis Street, cleaned up a section of nature trail and trash and debris pick-up along 63^rd street.

All in all over 465 volunteer hours were donated by MPM staff to assist those local park and recreation departments. CSI-KC is now planning a trip to tornado ravaged Joplin, Missouri to work with the city’s parks and recreation department on a yet to be determined project. Although Joplin is not a Midwest Pool Management client, this desire to be of service is emblematic of the character and caliber of Midwest Pool Management employees.

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